Amerika

These days it has become popular to blame “nihilism” for the lack of culture in society. No, dear drear friends, diversity killed culture, and now people believe in nothing because they share nothing in common. No amount of laws or religion can change that until you confront the Genetics Question.

However, for the Christians out there, we might look into a Biblical passage on nihilism that expresses its view entirely:

¹² All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.

“All things are lawful” = ends-over-means. That is, if you have a goal that is both realistic and good, you can and should use any means necessary to achieve it. Otherwise, you have endorsed a bad result over a good result, per the relativity of the universe.

“But not all things are expedient” = What is expedient as a concept?

suitable for achieving a particular end in a given circumstance

Not all things are realistic, so avoid the ones that do not achieve your ends, and act quickly instead of waiting for the perfect result. This is a defense of aggressive ends-over-means activity and a statement of consequentialism, or measuring actions by their results not intents or opinions about them.

“I will not be brought under the power of any.” = do not be ruled by means-over-ends; that is, instead of being “brought under the power” of any particular method, keep your eye on the goal, and when the method no longer achieves the goal, bail on it.

As mentioned before, nihilism means the refusal to participate in a group illusions that we all see and think the same things:

Nihilism declines to accept the belief in universal, absolute, and objective forms of values, truths, and communications.

That illusion arises from the need to manipulate people to get those who do not understand the ends to carry out the means. When you manipulate a mass, you need everyone to do the same thing, and avoid any method that makes them think thoughts other than holding the group together.

Every ill of our modern time comes from this manipulation. Our leaders necessarily value enforcing group unity, even if it is thin and fragile, over recognizing the parts of reality that might emphasize our differences. This is why bureaucracies tend toward egalitarianism.

Internationalist religions do the same thing. For them, having everyone behave in public as if they were good is more important than sorting the good from the bad; as long as everything looks safe and content, then unity is preserved, or at least, people enforce a minimum of it on each other.

The Bible, basically a compilation of thought from the Greco-Roman societies and nearby competitors, included this momentary burst of nihilism as a means of affirming what we all at some level know: unity is not enough. We also need to act toward realistic and constructive consequences in reality.

Tags: bible, consequentialism, nihilism, unity